March 6th - April 29th, 2016

Hello Friends and Family!

I'm grateful for this platform to keep in touch with our close friends and family. That being said, if you ever want to stop receiving my email updates, please let me know. I won't be offended! 

It seems like this Spring is streaking by and I know it won't be long until we are right in the middle of summer. The boys are loving being outside more and I'm glad to see them enjoying the great outdoors!

Here's a little of what we've been up to lately...

The sandbox for Owen's birthday is being used daily. Thankfully, the amount of sand that makes it into the house  hasn't been as bad as I had anticipated. Although, I still empty out and entire pocketful of sand every now and then while doing laundry. 

Two "before and after" pictures of a project we tackled since our last update...

I love how it turned out! The living room feels much more homey. :)

 One of many playdates with friends this spring! I realized the other day that I don't post many pictures of when we are away from home, (usually because my arms are tied up holding Liza) so it probably seems like we never leave the house! :) But, we do...promise! 

We are slowly working on plotting out and planting a garden this year. It's hard to find a good time on an average day to work in the garden, since it needs to be over Liza's nap and I'm usually needing my nap around that time too. So, we are doing it on a just-for-fun basis and making baby steps of progress here and there. It's really cool to see Blake and Seth starting to be more of a help and to see them enjoying various work projects. I'm looking forward to them tasting the fruits of their labors!

So cute to see their faces beam when I tell them "Look at those muscles growing!" 

We have a new addition to the family since Easter! I sent an email out to a group of friends to see if anyone had a rabbit they'd like to re-home and this is what we ended up with... Blue Belle, a 13-pound French Lop!

She is very calm and loves to be held like a baby.

Did I mention she is REALLY big?!?

Going for a walk around the yard. The boys have since gotten somewhat bored with walking her around (as she doesn't go very far very quickly probably due to the fact that she's a bit on the chubby side), so we tied her leash to a small ball that she can pull around the yard. Just enough to slow her down and also making it easy to keep an eye on her. Redneck anyone?  :)

 She's very laid back. Liza loves her!

Speaking of Liza...she is an outdoor lover! She gets rather upset with Mommy when it's time to come inside. We've been practicing our walking around the yard which means me holding her hands as she walks. We usually get about 5 steps in before she spots a dandelion flower and drops to the ground to pick it up. She adores flower. Usually, she likes to tear them into little pieces and nibble on the petals. 

First time on a swing!

Here's a few pictures from Easter...

 Auntie Celia!

Uncle Luke

 
The boys memorized the Easter story from Luke. It was more like "re-memorized" as we had learned it a couple years ago. It's been interesting for me to see more research coming out showing the value of memorization at young ages. Among other things, it helps them become better learners later on and helps them become better writers by mimicking the writing styles in the quality literature. 

 All four together, at the same time, smiling, and reasonably clean...it's an Easter miracle! :)

 A friend at church snapped this picture for us while we were still dressed up. 

A typical pre-bed time scene. 

Softball season has started up again!

Exploring a local river...

Liza got a new dress from my Grandparents, Moms and Pops in California. It's she delightful?

 Ever since Blake was about 12 months old, we've eaten countless bowls of oatmeal for breakfast in the mornings. This may sound silly, but it's been a sweet moment for me to add a new bowl each time the boys have gotten old enough to start eating oatmeal with the rest of us. So, the other day I added Liza's bowl for the first time. There are now four little bowls of oatmeal to fix each morning and four little hearts to nurture and grow each day.  

The boys' co-op classes, Archway, ended last week and Blake concluded his classes with a little piano recital. Micah had to be out of town that day, so we held a special family recital for him so Daddy could be there. 

Daddy was the Master of Ceremonies

Blake played a total of seven songs and hardly made any mistakes. He really enjoyed himself too!

 Some outdoor fun...

It's that time of year again!

 We always sort out some of the best berries and save them for when Daddy gets home. 

Just a LITTLE excited about fresh strawberries on our pancakes!

Funnies...

Owen was wrestling with the boys and pretending to have been "killed" in the battle. As he lay there with his eyes closed, he said, "My button is off" 

During bedtime prayer Owen offers up this little gem..."Jesus, please help the movie not to turn off and help Daddy to not get lost when he's at work."     Precious....

Owen got a little tired of helping with weeding the flower bed one day and when asked if he was going to continue working he said, "I'm full of working" 

In other news... Scott has made it safely to Florida and is beginning his training in Information Technology for the next six months. He is looking forward to starting this next phase of his journey with the Navy.

Jonathan has almost finished one out of four months of his deployment in Northern Iraq. He said he's doing well and is in a safe place (or that's what he tells me at least)  and that the coolness factor of what he is getting to do now has gone from a "4 to a 9" compared to his previous job. The boys enjoy sending him letters and we get a kick out of seeing how many pounds of goodies we can squeeze into the flat-rate postal boxes. ;)

Hope you all are doing well!

Love, 

The Foxes

January 21st - March 5th, 2016

Hi Friends and Family!

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Liza hit the 9-month old mark and has gone from starting to crawl to pulling herself up and cruising along the furniture quite handily. It won't be long until she's running right along with the boys. :)

Seth's reading skills have taken off! Here he is holding his first completed chapter book.

First swing experience!

Art class

Uncle Jonathan got to visit us briefly on his way back from pre-deployment training in South Carolina. We went to a children's museum in town and here Seth is preparing a special meal for him at the restaurant. :) 

Jonathan will be deploying any day now for six months. His previous deployments  have been four months so this will be a longer one for him. We will miss him! Let me know if you'd like to get his deployment address to mail him letters. 

Celebrating Uncle Jonathan's birthday. The boys crowned him King for the Day!

Owen "helping" to keep Liza quiet in church on Sunday morning. :) 

Blake said the other day while climbing, "Mom, I think God has given the gift of climbing!"  

Liza and Nana. I am SUPER blessed to have a wonderful Mother-in-law! She takes the kids for one day every week so I can run errands, rest, or get things done around the house. Not sure what I'd do without her help!

Liza has been doing much better at playing and being content now that she is more mobile. Owen is slooowly learning how to play gently with Liza. It's an hourly struggle unfortunately. Pats vs. hits. Hugs vs. strangle-holds.  :)

A super sweet note Seth wrote for me during quiet time one afternoon. Just about made me cry. The end says "I love you so much the whole family likes you. By Seth"   :,)

It has begun!

More books completed! Seth is really blossoming in his art skills lately too. It's neat to see him using different dimensions and mediums to create his masterpieces. I'll try to include some examples of his art in my next post. 

Prayer time after breakfast. The boys usually pray for Uncle Will, Uncle Luke, Uncle Jonathan, Uncle Scott, Pappy and Daddy every morning. :)

Look who turned three!

For Owen's birthday we made the boys a sandbox for the backyard

I'm so thankful to have a husband who has construction and handyman skills. It makes it easy to get my endless list of projects done and he can pass along his knowledge to the boys. 

Getting the sand. When the man running the tractor heard that it was Owen's birthday, he reached in his pocket and pulling out a handful of change, gave it to Owen. :)

We took the kids and Auntie Susanna to the mall to ride the...well, I'm not sure what you'd call them? Basically, stuffed animals with wheels that you can ride. Random, but really fun! 

The boys also trying the Superman jump. I love Blake's expressions for the first few seconds of the ride. A mixture of elation and terror. Thankfully, the elation won over and he loved it! 

Owen loved getting the cards from family members. Thanks everyone!

The boys have loved the sandbox so far!

Still Owen's daily attire. :) Owen likes to pretend a lot lately. He especially likes it when I "pretend" to be the mother. So when he wants to play pretend, he'll come up to me and say, "Are you the Muh-ver?"

Funnies...

• We are learning about the Oregon Trail in history right now (totally fascinating btw!) and I asked the boys at the lunch table a few days ago what they thought the pioneers would be eating for lunch. Blake said "Buffalo meat!" Seth said, "Indian meat!"      Oh dear...

• Owen got distressed when the TV was on mute and the movie was  starting, he yelled out, "The TV can't talk!"  :)

• The boys started taking one class each per week with a local homeschool co-op. Blake is taking a piano class and Seth is taking a storybook and literature class. We are encouraging the boys to meet and talk to one new classmate per week. The first week we asked Blake how it went and he said, "I didn't know anyone there besides me." :)

Hope you all are doing well. We are staying busy with school and church responsibilities. God is really good and we have been blessed beyond what we deserve. We only hope that we can give back to Him the praise and service due His Name.

Love to you all!

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth, Owen and Liza